Boris Johnson has said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for a deal at crucial international talks in Glasgow to curb global warming.
On the second day of the Cop26 summit, the Prime Minister welcomed a series of announcements by the assembled leaders on deforestation and emissions.
But he stressed there was still a long way to go if they were to get an agreement that would keep alive the prospect set out in the Paris Agreement of restricting world temperature rises to 1.5C.
Ahead of the summit, Mr Johnson suggested that humanity was 5-1 down at half-time in the battle against climate change.
But speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, he said: “We’ve pulled back a goal, or perhaps even two, and I think we are going to be able to take this thing to extra-time, because there’s no doubt that some progress has been made.”
He added that while the “doomsday clock is still ticking”, they now had a bomb disposal team on site and “they’re starting to snip the wires – I hope some of the right wires”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at a press conference during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow.
Stefan Rousseau
The Prime Minister welcomed commitments made by scores of leaders attending the summit to halt and reverse deforestation and to cut methane emissions.
In particular, he highlighted a pledge by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to slash his country’s carbon emissions by switching half its power grid to renewable sources.
He also acknowledged, however, that the issue of climate finance had yet to be resolved – despite a 10 billion dollar (£7.3 billion) commitment from Japan over five years.
Mr Johnson said the richer nations were still behind on a commitment first made at Paris in 2015 to transfer 100 billion dollars (£73 billion) a year to developing countries to support sustainable development and mitigate the inevitable effects of global warming.
“What I’ve been asking for, as you know, is action on coal, cars, cash and trees, and after just a couple of days we can certainly begin to tick three of those boxes,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Johnson was returning to London after end of the two-day leaders’ event which opened the summit, but he made it clear he would continue to be engaged.
In a message to the remaining teams who will get down to the task of detailed negotiations, he said: “The eyes of the world are on you – the eyes of the British Government and all the other governments that care about this – and we have got your numbers.”
